Long After Midnight

Fantastic or conventional, chillingly suspenseful, or hauntingly nostalgic, each of these stories has that aura of the unexpected combined with the special ring of absolute rightness that is brilliantly, uniquely Bradbury.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's mazes and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes and the stuff of nightmares.

The Golden Apples of the Sun: And Other Stories

Ray Bradbury is a modern cultural treasure. His disarming simplicity of style underlies a towering body of work unmatched in metaphorical power by any other American storyteller. And here are 32 of his most famous tales - prime examples of the poignant and mysterious poetry that Bradbury uniquely uncovers in the depths of the human soul, the otherwordly portraits that spring from the canvas of one of the century's great men of imagination.

The Martian Chronicles

Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow.

The Dragon in the Sea

In the 21st century, the United States has all but used up its oil supply. A new source must be found. Our atomic subtugs begin stealing oil from underwater deposits in enemy territory. But none of the last 20 tugs sent to bring back the desperately needed mineral have returned. Ensign John Ramsey of the Bureau of Psychology is planted aboard the Fenian Ram S1881 as an electronics officer. His assignment: find the saboteur in the four-man crew and bring back the oil.

A World Out of Time

After more than two hundred years as a corpsicle, Jaybee Corbell awoke in someone else’s body and under threat of instant annihilation if he made a wrong move while they were training him for a one-way mission to the stars. But Corbell bided his time and made his own move. Once he was outbound, where the society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core.

I Sing the Body Electric!: And Other Stories

The mind of Ray Bradbury is a wonder-filled carnival of delight and terror that stretches from the verdant Irish countryside to the coldest reaches of outer space. Yet all his work is united by one common thread: a vivid and profound understanding of the vast set of emotions that bring strength and mythic resonance to our frail species. Bradbury characters may find themselves anywhere - and anywhen.

Death Is a Lonely Business

Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend, who is away studying in Mexico, the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary efforts - until strange things begin happening around him.

Farside

Telescopes on Earth have detected an Earth-sized planet circling a star some 30 light-years away. Now the race is on to get pictures of that distant world that show whether or not the planet is truly like Earth - and if it bears life. Farside observatory will have the largest optical telescope in the solar system and the most sensitive radio telescope, insulated from the interference of Earth’s radio chatter by a thousand kilometers of the moon’s solid body. But building Farside is a complex, dangerous task. And what they ultimately find stuns everyone, and humanity will never be the same.

Whipping Star

In the far future, humankind has made contact with numerous other species - and has helped to form the ConSentiency to govern between the species. After suffering under a tyrannous pure democracy that had the power to create laws so fast that no thought could be given to the effects, the sentients of the galaxy found a need for the Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) to slow the wheels of government, thereby preventing it from legislating recklessly.

Burning Chrome

William Gibson's dark visions of computer cowboys, bio-enhanced soldiers of fortune, and hi-tech lowlifes have won unprecedented praise. Included here are some of the most famous short fiction and novellas by the author of Count Zero and Neuromancer.

Factoring Humanity

In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.

To Sail Beyond the Sunset: The Life and Loves of Maureen Johnson (Being the Memoirs of a Somewhat Irregular Lady)

Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best seller The Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead.

Glory Road

. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential...."

Rendezvous with Rama

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.

Tarzan of the Apes [Blackstone Edition]

Deep in the heart of the Congo a small baby is adopted by Kala, a fierce anthropoid ape of the tribe of Kerchak. Here, protected by his savage foster mother, Tarzan (for so she named him) learned the secrets of jungle life - how to talk with all animals, how to move like a shadow, how to swing freely through the teeming forest, how to fight barehanded the great carnivores. Here he acquired the strength and agility of his guardian apes, and the same keen sense of smell and sound that all wild creatures need to protect themselves.

Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.

Destroyer of Worlds

The newly liberated humans of the Fleet of Worlds and Sigmund Ausfaller, who had been transported by the Puppeteers from Earth to the Fleet, must contend not only with the sly Puppeteers but also the threat of the Pak, a very smart and utterly ruthless species who are fleeing the exploding galactic core in an armada of ships at near light speed. The Pak are headed towards the Fleet of Worlds, having destroyed entire planets in their wake.

The Cat Who Walks through Walls

When a stranger attempting to deliver a cryptic message is shot dead at his dinner table, Richard Ames is thrown headfirst into danger, intrigue, and other dimensions where Lazarus Long still thrives, where Jubal Harshaw lives surrounded by beautiful women, and where a daring plot to rescue the sentient computer called Mike can change the direction of all human history.

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the grand master's premier accomplishments. Collected here are eighteen tales, startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin, visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

Farnham's Freehold

Hugh Farnham is a practical, self-made man, and when he sees the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he builds a bomb shelter under his house, hoping for peace and preparing for war. But when the apocalypse comes, something happens that he did not expect. A thermonuclear blast tears apart the fabric of time and hurls his shelter into a world with no sign of other human beings.

Great Expectations

A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens' novel depicts Pip's development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his 'great expectations'.

When Worlds Collide

A runaway planet hurtles toward Earth. As it draws near, massive tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions wrack our planet, devastating continents, drowning cities, and wiping out millions. In central North America, a team of scientists race to build a spacecraft powerful enough to escape the doomed Earth. Their greatest threat, they soon discover, comes not from the skies but from other humans.

Sherlock Holmes and the King's Evil:: And Other New Adventures of the Great Detective (Unabridged)

In these five tales, Sherlock Holmes is shown at the height of his powers: he co-operates with a young Winston Churchill in the famed Siege of Sydney Street, helps defeat a plan for a German invasion outlined in the Zimmerman Telegram, establishes a link between two missing lighthouse keepers and the royal treasures of King John, contends with a supernatural curse places upon an eccentric aristocrat, and discovers a lost epic of Lord Byron.

Omnitopia Dawn: Omnitopia #1

In an increasingly wired and computer-friendly world, massive multiplayer online games have become the ultimate form of entertainment. And the most popular gaming universe of all is Omnitopia, created by genius programmer Dev Logan. For millions of people around the world, Omnitopia is an obsession, a passionate pastime, almost a way of life. But there's a secret to Omnitopia, one that Dev would give his life to protect: the game isn't just a program or a piece of code.

Publisher's Summary

Two drifters caught in the backwash of space wander from city to dead city, sifting the rubble for the fabled Blue Bottle of Mars - and find in it two different, equally entrancing, dooms.

A young boy in Green Town, Illinois, does not marry - yet marries - his beloved eighth-grade teacher....

In the hell of a Manhattan July night, Will Morgan is offered a possibly Mephistophelean proposal by which he might gain a perfect love and a magical immunity....

A jealous husband who orders an exact replica of his unfaithful wife from an android manufacturing company (purpose: murder) runs afoul of the compassionate new "live robot" law....

At 48, seized with an overwhelming desire to settle an old score, a man journeys back into the past under the spell of his "utterly perfect, incredibly delightful idea", only to recoil in stunned disbelief when he confronts, at last, his former tormentor....

Bradbury's imaginative field is boundless. In this book, his 22 stories carry us from the cozy familiarity of the small-town America we lived in, in Dandelion Wine, to the frozen desert and double moon that have been part of our interior landscape since The Martian Chronicles. His characters range from the "ordinary" - a rookie cop, an unhappy wife on vacation in Mexico, an old parish priest hearing confession - to the quite extraordinary: the parrot to whom Ernest Hemingway confided the plot of his last, greatest, never-put-down-on-paper novel, and a woman who, in New York City in the summer of 1974, hangs out a sign reading "Melissa Toad, Witch".

Fantastic or conventional, chillingly suspenseful, or hauntingly nostalgic, each of these stories has that aura of the unexpected combined with the special ring of absolute rightness that is brilliantly, uniquely Bradbury.

I enjoy Ray Bradbury short stories all ways have this collection fits the bill for me. The narrator does a very good job interpreting the individual stories and the characters in each story. The collection contain topics that range from subtle to, “that was different”, suspense also stories that are other worldly, futuristic and a twist on a 20th century character (Hitler) in Darling Adolf and the suspense of family life as a man plots against his wife in The October Game. Other stories I really liked are: The Miracles of Jamie; A Story of Love and especially Interval in Sunlight a man with a robotic wife he intended to destroy. On a whole the entire Audio is worth the listen and yes I have listened to it in its entirety more than once as I have listened to other Bradbury audible stories. Check it out you might find you like it.

Ray Bradbury is what I would call a literary author who's always labeled as writing genre stories (never mind the debate about what "literary" means in this context); he's a storyteller but his writing is also suffused with poetic flourishes and evocative, moody imagery and dialog that many genre authors skimp on. That said, none of the short stories I've read by him are among my favorite or most memorable. But some of his horror stories are very effectively creepy without any explicit violence.

Long After Midnight is a collection of twenty-two of his older stories. They range from mediocre to pretty good, but the mediocres outweighed the pretty goods, since after finishing the audiobook, I couldn't remember many details about specific stories. There is a lot of sentimentality, bordering on schmaltziness, such as in The Pumpernickel, basically about a middle-aged man remembering his childhood friends and how they drifted apart:

"In the hard, shiny crust of the bread, the boys at Druce's Lake had cut their names: Tom, Nick, Bill, Alec, Paul, Jack. The finest picnic in history! Their faces tanned as they rattled down the dusty roads. Those were the days when roads were really dusty; a fine brown talcum floured up after your car. And the lake was always twice as good to reach as it would be later in life when you arrived immaculate, clean, and un-rumpled."

A lot of the sci-fi stories in this collection are also heavily allegorical, with a tone ranging from Catholic to mystical, as in "G.B.S. - Mark V":

"What are we? Why, we are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts. Creation turns in its abyss. We have bothered it, dreaming ourselves to shapes. The void is filled with slumbers; ten billion on a billion on a billion bombardments of light and material that know not themselves, that sleep moving and move but finally to make an eye and waken on themselves. Among so much that is flight and ignorance, we are the blind force that gropes like Lazarus from a billion-light-year tomb. We summon ourselves. We say, O Lazarus Life Force, truly come ye forth. So the Universe, a motion of deaths, fumbles to reach across Time to feel its own flesh and know it to be ours. We touch both ways and find each other miraculous because we are One."

Many of the more dated ones also seemed to be semi-autobiographical, perhaps slightly elaborated tales of Bradbury himself as a boy.

Here is a list of the stories in the collection. Some of them have been turned into short films or Twilight Zone episodes.

"The Blue Bottle" — heavily metaphorical story about two men searching for an artifact on Mars."One Timeless Spring" — a twelve-year-old boy believes his parents are trying to poison him."The Parrot Who Met Papa" — almost felt like a bit of magical realism, about a parrot that has memorized Hemingway's last, unwritten novel."The Burning Man" — odd story mixing any number of "why you shouldn't pick up hitchhikers" tales with a pseudo-philosophical meditation on the nature of evil."A Piece of Wood" — one those speculative fiction stories that tries to make an important statement by starting with a silly premise, that a soldier has invented a device that can destroy all weapons."The Messiah" — a Martian manifests as Christ to a Catholic priest, with tragicomic results."G.B.S. - Mark V" — meditations of a robot."The Utterly Perfect Murder" — an old man resolves to visit his childhood friend and enemy and kill him for all the misery he suffered."Punishment Without Crime" — a man is sentenced to death for killing an android duplicate of his wife."Getting Through Sunday Somehow" — an old Irishman rambles about the past."Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds" — a man meets a witch."Interval in Sunlight" — this was one of the more memorable, though devoid of any fantastical elements, about a woman who wants to leave her joyless, verbally and emotionally abusive husband."A Story of Love" — interesting, surprisingly thoughtful story about a thirteen-year-old with a crush on his teacher, who reciprocates his feelings on some level. Manages to examine age differences and societal taboos without being icky."The Wish" — schmaltzy tale about a man who wants one last conversation with his dead father."Forever and the Earth" — a SF writer brings Thomas Wolfe to the future to write about Mars and space travel."The Better Part of Wisdom" — an old Irishman discovers his grandson is gay."Darling Adolf" — an actor hired to play Hitler in a historical film wants to literally revive the Fuhrer's role."The Miracles of Jamie" — dark-themed but not very original story of a boy who believes himself omnipotent, as a way of coping with his dying mother."The October Game" — this is the creepiest story in the collection, and the most obviously horrific, about a man who conceives a horrible vengeance against his wife."The Pumpernickel" — sentimental and kind of banal slice-of-life story."Long After Midnight" — another gay-themed story, but frankly the plot slips my mind."Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You!" — a chocolate addict confesses to a priest, in another allegorical tale about redemption and pleasure and freedom.

In general, not a bad collection of stories, especially if you are a Ray Bradbury fan, but they didn't really excel in my opinion, although there is enough horror and creepiness in a few of them to make this good Halloween reading. 3.5 stars.

I have loved Ray Bradbury's writing ever since, as a 12 year old, I found a 1st edition of his "Martian Chronicles" on my parents' bookshelf. Do not look for high-tech wizardry in these stories--rather Bradbury employs the science fiction/fantasy genre to explore the mysteries of existence and of the human psyche. As with any collection of short stories, there are some that resonate more than others, but overall, this collection evokes those feelings--of wonder, poignancy, curiosity, fear and mystery--that sets Bradbury in a class by himself .

Read much of Bradbury and you learn two things about him. He would like to go to Mars and he would like to be twelve forever.

These stories were written before 1944, which makes it seem funny to us that he writes about how much better things were in the good old days. This is a theme he uses often. Times were better when the roads were made of dirt. The stories are dated. What he writes or the way he writes could not be done today. Several of the stories talk about his love for his male friends, to the point that today it would sound very gay (not that their is anything wrong with that), but I am pretty sure at the time he did not think it gay. One story is about a 14 year old boy who falls in love with a 24 year old teacher and she falls in love with him. Recent news stories remind us that, that is not legal today. I felt a little uncomfortable listening to that one. Writers are mentioned often in these stories. George Bernard Shaw is the main character in one, Thomas Wolfe in another and Hemingway thru a parrot in another.

Of the 22 stories I would give six of them five stars, my two favorites would be The Burning Man and A piece of Wood. There are five stories at the four star level and then the rest are three or less. Darling Adolf is long and boring. The Burning Man is scary and even talks about genetics. None of the others are scary.

This is a short but very rich collection of tales from Ray Bradbury. Unlike may authors today the feel you need to sell books by the pound the create depth of story, each of the short stories making up this book has depth and complexity not found in tomes 1/4 its length from most modern authors. The performance is not top shelf but the stories make up for that shortage.

Ray's short of Dublin on Sunday is outstanding. Brought tears to my eyes. The chocolate bar confessional at the end made me laugh out loud for a full minute. Wonderful. Overall, a great collection of stories of every sort written in the constricting confines of the short story. Every word is perfectly placed. From prosaic to poetic, these are worth the listen. As a first introduction to Bradbury, you'll get a feel for his ability to paint your mind with images and people.

What does Michael Prichard bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mr. Prichard brings great characterizations and voice to the reading. I've already relistened to a number of these simply because Michael did such a wonderful job of voicing. Several of the old men sounded like they were brothers, but from young to old, great job. As one who has voiced hundreds of characters to my sons over the years, I admire this immensely.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.